Tampa Bay Lightning @ Montreal Canadiens Live Stream & Tips - Montreal to defeat Tampa to stay alive in Stanley Cup Final

The Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning will face-off for game no.4 of the Stanley Cup Finals on Tuesday, July 6. On Saturday, Tampa scored a 6-3 win over Montreal that gave them a 3-0 lead in this best-of-seven game series, and just one win away from retaining the Stanley Cup. 

24-time Stanley Cup winners Montreal are in their first finals since 1993, but now find themselves in a position of needing to win on Tuesday just to keep this series alive. The only time in NHL history that a team has come back from a 0-3 deficit in a Stanley Cup final and won the trophy was in 1942, when the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Detroit Red Wings 4-3. 

Saturday’s 6-3 defeat was slightly more positive for the Canadiens as they had previously scored a total of two goals in their first two matches, losing 5-1 and 3-1. That said, in trying to attack more, Montreal left themselves defensively more vulnerable, conceding six goals. 

There hasn’t been a 4-0 whitewash in a Stanley Cup final since 1998, and I’m backing the Montreal Canadiens to avoid owning that stat by winning game no.4 on Tuesday, with Montreal defeating a nervous Tampa Bay by two clearly goals. 

The Montreal Canadiens and the Tampa Bay Lightning have played each other a total of 67 times in regular-season games. Currently Tampa Bay lead this head-to-head 37-30. In their last eight matches over the past three seasons, Tampa Bay lead 7-1. Because of restrictions brought about by the pandemic, these two teams didn’t play each other during the regular season in 2021.

While the Tampa Bay Lightning had to fight hard for their 4-3 series victory over the New York Islanders in the semifinals, so far in the Stanley Cup Finals themselves, the Lightning haven’t put a foot wrong. Last Tuesday Tampa won the opening game of the finals with a convincing 5-1 victory over the Montreal Canadians. Once again, Andrei Vasilevskiy was rock solid in goal, as he has been throughout the playoffs. Two days later Tampa defeated Montreal a second time, this time by a tighter 3-1 scoreline, and then on Saturday came the 6-3 victory that put the Lightning in touching distance of a second consecutive Stanley Cup winner’s trophy.

No matter the sport, competitors are still human beings, and there is no doubt that the Tampa Bay team will still be nervous going into such an important game. Will they be nervous enough for Montreal to take advantage and grab that much-needed win that will keep these Stanley Cup Finals alive? We shall soon find out.

If the pressure on Tampa to win on Tuesday, seal a decisive 4-0 victory and retain the Stanley Cup is huge, spare a thought for what the Montreal Canadians players must be going through. The Canadiens remain the most successful team in NHL history with a staggering 24 Stanley Cup victories. Montreal are one of the NHL’s “Big Three” teams, along with the New York Rangers and the Toronto Maple Leafs, and worth $1.5 billion.  

These players have been trusted with delivering the Montreal fans their first Stanley Cup victory since 1993. The fact that this Montreal team which only finished fourth in the North Division with a losing record has done incredibly well just to reach the finals is neither here nor there - they are now just one defeat away from the embarrassment of a 4-0 whitewash - the first since 1998. 

While Tampa’s players know they can afford to lose even a couple of games and still secure victory, Montreal has no such luxury.